Short Summary

The remains of two Jewish underground fighters, hanged by the British in Cairo in 1945 for the murder of resident British Middle East Minister Lord Moyne, were returned to Israel by the Egyptians on Wednesday (25 June).

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The remains of two Jewish underground fighters, hanged by the British in Cairo in 1945 for the murder of resident British Middle East Minister Lord Moyne, were returned to Israel by the Egyptians on Wednesday (25 June).

Members of the families of the two men -- Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bait-Tsuri -- were present at the handover ceremony, held at a United Nations buffer zone checkpoint in Sinai.

Later, 20 Arabs jailed by the Israelis for security offenses in occupied Sinai and the Gaza strip were returned to Egypt.

The two underground fighters had been members of a Jewish guerrilla organisation which blamed Lord Moyne for encouraging Britain to restrict Jewish immigration into Palestine. Their remains are being reinterred at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl Cemetery, where underground fighters and Israeli leaders are buried.

In Britain, meantime, some members of Parliament protested at the glorification of what they called "cold-blooded murderer".SYNOPSIS: The remains of two Jewish underground fighters, hanged by the British in Cairo in 1945, were handed over to the Israelis by the Egyptians at a UN checkpoint in Sinai this week. The two guerrillas had been executed by the British for the wartime murder of Lord Moyne, the British Minister resident in the Middle East.

Both underground fighters had been members of a Jewish organisation which blamed the British Minister for trying to restrict Jewish immigration into Palestine. In return for the bodies, the Israelis later handed over twenty Arab prisoners to Egypt.

Members of the two guerrillas' families were present at the handover ceremony. Later, the remains of the two men were reinterred at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem, where other Israeli leaders are buried. There have been protests in British Parliament this week over the glorification of the killers of the British Ministers.